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Everton v Villa: Lambert on "moaning" Delph's will to win

Fabian Delph has been branded Villa's biggest moaner - but manager Paul Lambert reckons it is a sign of the midfielder's will to win.

Lambert hailed the consistency of the former Leeds midfielder's performances following his goalscoring exploits in Wednesday night's derby win over West Brom.

Delph has enjoyed his best spell this term since joining the claret and blues in summer 2009.

And Lambert joked that he is happy to put up with the 24-year-old's moaning if his high standards continue.

"He moans like anything, Fabian," said the Villa boss.

"He'll moan about things that are incredible! You need those sort of players in your side - people that will moan for the sake of moaning.

"You need those sort of characters to snap at your ankles, really, on the pitch and he is great at it.

"But his general game at the moment is great. There's a lot of confidence there."

Delph has endured several lengthy injury lay-offs since arriving in B6 and Lambert believes he is finally reaping the rewards of a sustained run in the side.

"The thing that we found with him is he's hardly missed a day's training since we've been here and he's played most of the games, so I think he's getting used to training every single day and playing," the manager said.

"Where I'm fortunate is that he hasn't had that before because of his injury."

Delph has produced two goal-of-season contenders this season against Southampton and West Brom.

Lambert says he can take his game to the next level by chipping in with more goals.

"He's playing really high-level football for us and if he can add more goals to his game it will certainly catapult him forward," he added.

"His general game has been very good. He's still only a young guy though he seems to have been about for years.

"He's a young guy and he has a big career in front of him if he keeps going the way he's going."